When I quit my respectable, well paying job to walk solo across
the State of Colorado, I received many different reactions from friends, family
and co-workers.  Many thought I was crazy
for doing it.  Then again, others thought
I would be crazy not to do it.  Most did
not understand.  I think when it was all
said and done there was some jealousy from all parties.  One thing is for sure, I am jealous of my
past self, up there in some of the most incredible terrain I have ever been a
part of.

Ok, so lets summarize this.
The Colorado trail runs from Waterton Canyon in Denver, CO to Junction
Creek in Durango Colorado.  It is listed
as 485 miles, broken up into 28 ‘segments’, goes up to an elevation of 13,271’,
crosses the Continental Divide numerous times, and includes some of the most
vigorous tests of mental, physical and emotional strength that this state has
to offer.

I consider myself to be in fairly good shape and a moderate
knowledge of the backcountry.  I have
lived in Colorado most of my life but the only real backpacking trips I have
done are a week long in the Superstitions in Arizona back in high school and an
overnight last summer up past Crested Butte.
All the other camping trips were with friends and involved my Jeep
Cherokee and alcohol.  I have, of course,
been on countless day hikes, raft trips, ski days, couple rock climbing
outings, but these really don’t prepare you for a long trail.

I started the trail August 4^th, 2015 at 1230, a
little hung over, and with a pack that was about 10lbs heavier than it needed
to be.  I ended the hike September 8^th,
2015 with sore feet, high spirits, a tightened belt, and with a body that was
about 15lbs less than I started with.

Unless you want to carry an absurd amount of food, you must
resupply along the way.  I carried 7 days
of food with me when I left Denver, bought 5 days of food in Breckenridge, had
6 days of food waiting for me in the mail when I reached Twin Lakes, bought 6
days of food in Gunnison, mail drop of 4 days in Lake City, and a mail drop of
5 days in Silverton.

Lets get some totals and averages in here.

Days: 36

Hiking days: 31

Half days: 7

Zero days: 5

Expected miles: 485

Recorded miles:
480 (This discrepancy may have been from the Collegiate West route, as this was
poorly depicted in the databook and there was also a re-route that was not in
the databook)

Water used: 123,000 ml

Time hiked: 254hrs, 25min

Averages

15.5 mi/day

17.5 mi/day (if half days are combined)

1.9 mph (including H2O breaks and collection, food breaks,
rest breaks)

256 ml H2O/mi (this includes water used at camp)

3968 ml H2O/day (this includes water used at camp)

I would normally wake around 0530, on the trail about
0630.  But if you want to see some colors
you didn’t know existed, wake up at 0400, get on the trail at 0500 and see the
sunrise at 12,000’, spectacular.  Due to
storms in the Rocky Mountains, you want to be in camp before they get
nasty.  I would start to look for a perfect
campsite at 1600, look for any good site by 1700 and just find somewhere to
hunker down by 1800 if I was still on the trail.  These hours allowed me to get about 17 miles
done, my shortest day was 3.7 miles (was a half day before Breckenridge), and my
longest day was the last day 26.9 miles (yeah that sucked but I wanted pizza
and beer).  Some people would do shorter
days of around 12, but then you have to resupply much more often or carry more
food.  Others would go for over 20 a day
but you can only hike so fast and those end up being long painful days.  Also you are already taking weeks off from
life, what’s another week?

As mentioned earlier, my pack was heavier than it needed to
be in the beginning, so lets go into everyone’s favorite subject, the gear.  I switched up gear when I was in Breckenridge
and Gunnison; you definitely learn what works and what doesn’t pretty fast.  Weight is probably one of, if not the, most
important factors for your enjoyment of the trail and if you will complete or
not.  The thing that got me was most of
the gear I had I have been collecting for a while, not thinking of doing a long
trip like this.  What this means is that
every piece of gear you buy, you should ask yourself if there is a lighter
option, and if that option can do everything that you need it to do.  Price does come into play here, I’m sure some
have heard: ‘its cheap to lose pounds, expensive to lose ounces’.  My sleeping bag is an example of this, $200
for a 20-degree bag that weighs 2lbs 14oz.
After I bought this I saw a Sierra Designs bag for $240, 23 degrees and
2lbs, should have bought that one.  Also,
simplicity is a great feature.  I could
have bought the lower tier of pack from Osprey and saved about a pound on pack
weight.  Instead I took a knife and
scissors to my pack and removed everything that I did not use in the first week
of my trip, probably lost a few ounces there.
Well, lesson learned.

This is the list of gear that I started out with, some was
traded out, and that is discussed later.

           Toothbrush,
toothpaste, Dr. Bronners soap, eye drops, chap stick

Colorado Trail
Foundation Databook (this includes segments, mileage, turn by turn, water
sources, camp sites, elevation)

Bolle Rx transition sunglasses

Gone: Klean Kanteen 2x, hammock, hammock straps, Oboz boots,
and Katadyn filter

Acquired: Smart water bottle 2x, sawyer mini filter, 1 liter
platypus water bag, Salewa shoes

Gone: Bivy sack, Smart water bottle 2x, rain pants (kept
jacket)

Acquired: Marmot Nitro 1p tent, MSR 4 liter dromedary (they
also make the drom-lite, about 2 oz less)

Lets talk about feet and footwear.  The Oboz I had were lightly broken in and
have never given me issues in the past, on day hikes or on the overnight in
2014.  However, the second day of the
trip, they started to eat my feet.  I had
blisters above my heel and just behind my big and pinky toe.  Sucks cause I like how those boots fit.  I bought some low cut Salewa shoes in Breck
and my foot troubles all but disappeared.
However these shoes did have a higher and skinnier heel than I like so I
had some very infrequent stability issues (think drunk girl in Vegas wearing
heels), this did allow for good foot placement however.  Another great feature of the shoe was the
reinforced toecap that allowed my uncoordinated self to kick rocks on the trail
without using profanity.  I think I will
keep these for hiking but grab something that I can wear around town; the ones
I got are not going to win me any fashion awards.  From what I have seen and heard, the low cuts
are great unless you are carrying huge loads or have questionable ankles.

A few notes about the shelter set-ups.  I started with a kind of kooky set-up, a
hammock with a sleeping bag, bivy sack and a sleeping pad.  This is comfortable, but difficult to get
into/out of and its not as warm as it should be.  I hiked with a guy for about a week who was
in a hammock and he had a proper setup with the tarp and underquilt.  This was great for him, but be aware, he did
have to sleep on the ground at least twice because we were above tree line and
trees were many miles away.  He did have
a contingency plan for ground sleeping but something to keep in mind.  After a week, I switched to the sleeping bag,
bivy and pad.  This is a great
lightweight, set up anywhere, kit and it keeps you dry when you are in it.  The cons are that there isn’t much room
inside so changing is probably an outside job, difficult entry/exit if it is
raining, you must prop up the opening a bit for ventilation, and its just kind
of lame not having a somewhere you can sit up and be inside.  The bivy sack did have a single pole that
formed a semicircle over you to keep it off your head, necessary for a bivy in
my opinion.  Great piece of gear, just
not for a 5-week trip.  When I reached
Gunnison, I had a Marmot Nitro 1 person tent waiting for me.  This sets up with a single trekking pole and
an included one-piece pole, about a foot long.
This tent does rely heavily on guy lines and stakes, but I never had an
issue.  Even in some gnarly Colorado high
mountain thunderstorms the tent performed exceptionally.  Marmot did only give me 8 crappy stakes (go
buy quality stakes), 9 was needed for best set up.  The tent resembles a very tall and deluxe bivy
sack and weighs 1 lb., 11 oz., not including whatever trekking pole you
choose.  This kept me very dry, never had
condensation issues, enough room for my gear (backpack under you lower legs or
under the vestibule).  I also had enough
room to (barely) sit up, and I could change inside.  Can’t say enough how much ass that tent
kicked.

Couple other MVPs in the gear department were the sawyer
mini filter and the dromedary.

The filter is great, just back flush it at the end of each
day and be careful not to break the syringe (I broke it by using stupid he-man
strength).  I stayed away from using pond
or lake water as much as I could, creeks usually have less particulates in
them.  I did use some questionable
looking sources a few times and did not get sick.  Platypus bag fits OK if you made sure it was
on perfect, I think the newer bags fit better.

The MSR dromedary (4 liter) was great because it allowed me
to carry a lot of water if needed and you can hang it from a tree and have a
faucet.  I drank from a Klean Kanteen
(heavy, yes, but durable and water is important) and filled that from the
dromedary.  Total water capacity was 5800
ml if I needed it (dromedary, Klean Kanteen, and 1 liter of dirty water in
platypus bag).

This was also the first time I used a trekking pole.  I just used one, most people had two but
there were only a few times I wanted two.
I would highly recommend anyone who goes on any backpacking trip to have
one, saved my ass from falling down a couple times.

My food kit was a bit different from most on the trail due
to the fact I went stoveless.  It’s not
as bad as it sounds.  Most of my food you
don’t cook, trail mix, dried fruit, tuna packs, jerky, bagels, energy bars,
candy bars, peanut butter packets, breakfast crackers, breakfast drink powders,
ect.  I would then use an empty peanut
butter jar, one of the smaller ones, for rehydrating food.  Oatmeal is easy, add 2 packs, add water,
close cap, put it in you shirt that’s tucked in and by the time you clean up
camp a bit, it should be luke warm, tasty.
I would use half of a 'Backpackers Pantry' packet each day. Around 1200,
add the food and water and check after a few hours to see if you need more
water.  After rehydrating for 4-5 hrs.,
the meal is ready.  Now I know this
sounds gross but its not that bad, kind of like leftovers in the fridge.  If you plan early, you can get a food
de-hydrator and make your own meals to rehydrate.  I did not mind going stoveless, most thought
I was nuts, YMMV.

I was not exactly sure what to bring in my first aid kit but
it became pretty clear pretty quick.  The
only medical issues I had was torn up feet and a torqued knee, which was fine
after a couple weeks in a cheap neoprene knee brace.  For a first aid kit I think you can get away
with: alcohol wipes, iodine prep pads, Neosporin, medical tape (hockey tape
also works), some gauze, stretchy wrap (also good for a torqued knee or ankle),
moleskin/blister kit, couple assorted Band-Aids, plastic gloves, safety pins, tweezers,
nail clippers, Q-tips, aspirin/ibuprofen, Benadryl or something for allergies
and bee stings, something for stomach issues (tums or something, didn’t need
them but wouldn’t mind carrying a couple), and any other meds or dietary supplements
that you take.  I think with this you can
fix injuries that you expect and stabilize injuries that you don’t expect.  You will see at least a couple of people each
day so extraction would not be impossible.
My first aid kit also included my gear maintenance kit, such as: zip
ties, duct tape, super glue, tent fabric repair, sleeping pad repair,
batteries, Para cord, and an extra bag for the sawyer filter, sewing needle,
and some fishing line.

And we come to the issue of guns.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to bring
one, and if I did, if I would bring my 226 9mm, my 1991 45cal, or buy a G29/G20
10mm.  As noted before, weight is huge so
that made up my mind, no gun.  Plain and
simple, there was no time that I wanted to have my gun.  All the people were nice; I bear bagged my
food every night, and didn’t see any big cats.
Talking to some people, no one would mind hiking with someone who
carried, most even welcomed it.  However,
most people did not want to be the person to carry the extra weight.  I think I only saw one person with a gun,
some girl, not sure what it was.  Maybe
if I get my pack weight down some more and find a good way to carry I’ll carry
in the future but I wouldn’t worry about it.
Just don’t be an idiot (with or without a gun).

When I look back on the trip it seems as if it flew by, even
though some of the days were long and brutal.
I did see some of the most incredible country, some areas and types of
terrain that I did not know Colorado even had.
It’s also neat to see what it actually takes (gear, food, water,
shelter, spirit) to survive in the wilderness for that long.  Even though I enjoyed the hike and will never
forget or regret it, I’m not sure if I want to do one of the ‘real’ long trails
(Appalachian, Continental
Divide, Pacific Crest), these take around 5 months vs 5 weeks, but you never
know.  Some people will find some great
answer to life out on the trail, not sure if I did or not.  Just getting out there was enough for
me.  If I learned anything its that you
need to take some time out of you life to do something, whether it’s a trail or
a motorcycle ride or just moving out of your current situation, life is too
short to be looking over the fence to see if the grass is green, you got to do
some yard work yourself